The present invention relates generally to the field of electronic equipment and, in particular, to housings for electronic equipment.
Many housings for electronic equipment, such as telecommunications housings, contain and environmentally protect electronic circuit cards, such as line cards, management cards, splitter cards, or the like. The electronic circuit cards are often located in a space between two card-guide shelves (or plates) and are electrically connected to backplanes within the housings. Each of the two card-guide shelves has a number of slots such that when an electronic circuit card is located between the two card-guide shelves, opposite edges of the electronic circuit card each respectively reside in a slot of each of the shelves.
Card-guide shelves are usually mounted within a housing so that a gap, e.g., an air gap, exists between the card-guide shelves and the housing. However, this often results in excessive temperatures within the housing because heat generated by electronic circuits cards located between the card-guide shelves that is transferred to either of the card-guide shelves is not readily transferred across the air gap and thus through the housing to the environment outside the housing. Therefore, card-guide shelves of some housings are held in direct contact with the housing by substantially permanently attaching the card-guide shelves to the housing, such as by riveting or the like. However, this requires an additional door-covered opening (e.g., in addition to a door-covered opening for accessing the electronic circuit cards) on the housing for providing access for installing and removing the backplane. An additional opening and door increases manufacturing costs. Moreover, the additional door adds to maintenance costs, e.g., hinge repair or replacement, weather seal replacement, etc.
For the reasons stated above, and for other reasons stated below that will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for alternatives to existing housings for electronic equipment.
The above-mentioned problems with existing housings for electronic equipment and other problems are addressed by embodiments of the present invention and will be understood by reading and studying the following specification.
In one embodiment, a housing for a plurality of electronic circuit cards is provided. The housing includes a shell and a single door adapted to selectively close the shell. The housing has a first shelf having opposing first and second edges in frictional engagement with the shell to thermally couple the first shelf to the shell. Moreover, the housing has a second shelf having opposing first and second edges directly contacting the shell to thermally couple the second shelf to the shell. The first and second shelves define a space therebetween for containing the plurality of electronic circuit cards. A backplane is disposed within the shell. The second shelf is removably attached to the shell to enable the backplane to be installed or removed via the single door.
Further embodiments of the invention include methods and apparatus of varying scope.